


Looping

by magenta_sunset



Category: Bleach, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: I Don't Even Know, M/M, PMMM AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 19:32:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12217485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magenta_sunset/pseuds/magenta_sunset
Summary: If Tesla doesn't want to accept this, he may as well be crazy.





	Looping

If Tesla doesn’t want to accept this, he may as well be crazy.

The white-haired creature tilts its head.

“A contract, boy.” It says, in one of those high-pitched, “cutesy” voices that Tesla frankly just finds creepy and disorienting.

“Make a wish.”

Tesla gazes over to the body of the man lying on the white sands of Hueco Mundo. Nnoitra-sama has a crazy smile on his face, laughing at the world even in death.

“I wish…I wish to save Nnoitra-sama.”

This war against the Shinigami has taken so, so, long, and claimed so, so many lives. But if Nnoitra-sama can live…

Tesla will endure however long it takes.

With a breath he doesn’t know whether or not will be his last, Tesla whispers, “I accept your contract.”

The light is blinding. Verruga seems to become heavier.

 

He goes back one month: to the beginning of Ichigo’s journey into Hueco Mundo.

 

The first time, Tesla lets everything play out before him, but instead of torturing Ichigo, he kills him quickly, efficiently. The Zaraki barbarian comes too late to save the orange-haired boy.

So Kenpachi unloads on Nnoitra and him instead.

Tesla goes back again.

 

“ _Fracción._ ” Nnoitra rolls the word on his tongue. “ _Fraction_. It means yer a fraction of me, Tesla.”

He keeps his head down. “Yes, Nnoitra-sama.”

“It’s really very stupid.” Nnoitra shakes his head. “Yer not even an eighth of my power level, Tesla. An’ yet…”

Tesla wants to ask him what the _“And yet…_ ” meant.

He never gets to.

A week later, Nnoitra’s body falls to the ground.

His breath is gone before the body’s knees touch dry, white, Hueco Mundo sand.

Tesla swallows, breath thick, and the Kurosaki boy looms over him for only a moment before that huge sword comes down, thinking to strike his head.

He loops.

 

“ _Indice Radar_.” Nnoitra sticks a finger in the sand. “Heh. I see it…a huge amount of Reiatsu. Tesla, ya better not screw this up fer me, yeah?” He gets up and stares into the swirling sand.

_Sand_. It is the only constant in the swirling, swirling world.

Tesla notices the odd gem on his sword hilt becoming about three-quarters turquoise, one-quarter black.

He pays it no mind.

 

Again, and again, and again. Tesla’s beginning to understand why Szayel went mad when he did (maybe ten or so loops backwards).

He’s started to desensitize himself to the blood, to the image of Nnoitra falling into the sand, hitting the ground, time after time, with the comforting words of _I can avoid this next time._

He’s forgotten how many times he’s had to tell himself these words.

 

Tesla’s gem is maybe three-eighths black now.

 

Kyubey watches, laughs, and waits.

 

“Witches.” Byakuya Kuchiki stares seriously at the other twelve captains. “That’s what they seem to be called, according to this one here.” He motions at the corner of the table.

Kyubey blinks innocently up at the Head Captain Yamamoto.

 

Tesla dashes in to save Nnoitra from Kenpachi’s swing, which gives his master the time needed to impale the hulking figure through the heart with one of his carapace-covered arms. Nelliel lies facedown, her broken body already losing its aura. Ichigo himself is slumped, body impaled on a scythe.

When Kenpachi falls, defeated by his master’s elegant scythe swings, Tesla stares up at Nnoitra as he cancels Santa Teresa.

“Nnoitra-sama?” Tesla looks up at him. “W-we’ve defeated Kurosaki, Zaraki, and Nelliel…should we return to Aizen-sama’s palace now?”

The Quinto Espada doesn’t pay him any heed at first, just staring up at the artificial sun of Las Noches. Something seems to shift in his gaze.

Finally, he turns to Tesla.

“Y-yeah. Let’s go.”

 

Tesla’s gem is halfway to blackness.

He’s gotten a lot sicker, and nothing seems to help.

But it will alarm Nnoitra-sama, so he keeps the information away.

 

“Mm.” Nnoitra presses up against Tesla, nuzzling against him. He smiles that creepy grin against Tesla’s skin; the Fracción can feel it.

“Tesla…” The Espada mutters languidly, half-asleep.

“Y’know, Tesla…”

“I think I might like ya.”

 

Tesla doesn’t think he’s heard anything that could make him happier.

 

Some days, they don’t fight. Some days, he thinks Nnoitra’s mellowed out, only for a shriek or some kind of random, violent act to remind him that he is always, and will always be, Nnoitra-sama, that fierce, fight-starved man who fell into despair before he turned Arrancar.

Some days, Tesla is content to hold his hand and watch the fake sun.

 

Some days, Tesla lies underneath him as they bask in the afterglow, skin flushed and sweaty, and for a moment, maybe longer, Tesla can forget that the gem resting on the hilt of Verruga is three-quarters black, and the remaining part of turquoise seems to slowly be corrupting.

 

He holds out for another month.

 

One day, Nnoitra enters Tesla’s room, calling him out. Lord Aizen has plans, plans for Inoue Orihime, he says, _especially now that Kurosaki boy is out of the way, maybe Urahara will finally get up_ , and Nnoitra hears nothing in the call.

There is only an egg-like device in the center of the room. When Nnoitra touches it, he is sucked into a completely unknown dimension, has to fight tooth and nail with the terrifying minotaur/warthog creature in its midst, and he leaves in Resurrección and panting heavily, accepting that Tesla’s probably been killed by the thing inside.

He kills the creature on a later date. He does it alone. And when the others ask about where Tesla has gone, Nnoitra simply replies, flippantly, “He’s dead,” and they leave it at that.

 

They never really cared about their Fracción anyways, right?

 

_Tesla…_

 

_He was weak_.

 

Nnoitra doesn’t ever take another Fracción. Not that he wants to; he’d probably kill them within a week. They can’t do the same things Tesla can.

Tesla. Weak, pathetic Tesla. Tesla who died to that monstrous thing that seemed to quell at the sight of him.

Tesla.

Beautiful, perfect Tesla, who could never be replaced.

_He wasn’t all perfect._

_But at least…_

_He was mine._

 

_If he died to that thing, he was weak. Wasn’t he?_

 

_He held out for…hmm, a year?_ Kyubey telepathically relays to Them.

_Good for him._ They say back. _The emotion…to think, all this stemmed from that twisted thing called ‘love’._

_True, true._ Kyubey tilts his head. _So, Masters? Shall I seek out a new one? Somewhere else? Or wait?_

_Wait._ They tell him. _I sense someone shall soon make another contract…_

_Noted_ , he tells Them back.

 

“I wanna make a contract with ya, alien.” The mantis says to the Incubator.

“Okay. What do you wish for?”

“I wish…” Nnoitra closes his eyes, two desires spinning like tops before him.

_To fight…or not._

He remembers misty memories, like they never happened at all, memories where him and that boy with blonde hair drink soda (never tea, for it reminds them of Aizen who is like a bad taste in their mouths) on the roof of their palace, memories where, a thousand times, blonde hair stains itself red with blood trying to deflect a blow from a sword, memories where Tesla’s hips buck up into his own and they gasp out pained cries, cries that resonate with the kind of _I love you_ s Nnoitra has only ever seen in films.

The desire comes out, almost unbidden from his lips.

“I want…I want to be with Tesla. My Tesla.”

 

Kyubey points out a witch to Byakuya as the first ever Shinigami-Puer Magi walks forth into the further reaches of the Rukongai districts. People have been disappearing there recently, and the Shinigami’s honour-bound to find out the cause – and eliminate it.

He grasps the Grief Seed (at least, that is what Kyubey called it) firmly.

The landscape falls away and distorts around him all at once.

It looms, body stark against the green of the forest which its’ labyrinth is made of. Six arms sprout from its back, and it waves them erratically, mandibles making a _click-clack_ noise.

He stares at it for a long time, before his brain comprehends what he’s seeing. It _is_ his first time spotting a witch, and Kyubey’s taken the time to explain why exactly he’s got to fight it.

_That witch will drop a “Grief Seed”, which you need to cleanse your Soul Gem with. Otherwise, you’re gonna die when it turns fully black._

Two words trickle out of his lips.

“…A mantis?”

 

_VERRUGA_

_The warthog witch with a submissive nature. This witch fights with his horns, goring the enemy repeatedly until it dies. To defeat him, one must cut his final tie to the world, and his reason to continue on in this twisted form. Only then will he admit defeat, and allow himself to die. He seems to constantly repeat the names of his familiars, as if he calls to somebody._

_JIRUGA_

_The warthog witch’s familiars, whose duty is to defend. Like who the witch may have once been, this familiar is a protector of their master. However, they seem to be reminiscent of insects, which is strange for the kind of master they serve. For an odd reason, their name seems to be constantly repeated by the warthog witch, as if he was calling out to someone._

 

_SANTA TERESA_

_The mantis witch, with a bloodthirsty nature. Do not be fooled by his garb of a nun: this witch is, truthfully, a warmongering creature, who hungers for battle and will not allow a soul out of his domain until one of them dies. Once upon a time, this witch was joyous, but now he only knows pain, despair and grief, and battles to inflict the same kind of suffering upon his enemies._

_ESRA_

_The mantis witch’s familiars. Hog-like creatures with horns specifically made to crush enemies, they are a force to be reckoned with. They seem to worship the witch, but he crushes them without care to pulverize his enemies._


End file.
